Phrases vs clauses

Question

Hi! Some grammarians call the non-finite structures phrases and some clauses. Why? Is it the two things, or only one with two terms? Thanks for the reply.

Pieanne · Accepted Answer

Hello!
To me, a phrase begins with a capital, and ends with a full stop.It's a sentence. In a sentence, you may find different kinds of clauses: relative, temporal clauses, etc...
But then I may be misled by French.
Better wait till a native sees your post!

Julielai · Answer

A phrase is made up of a string of words without a verb. It is not a sentence. e.g. the man with the dog, those pretty red flowers, etc.

A clause usually contains a subject and a verb.
See: http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/clauses.htm

Hope that helps.

Pieanne · Answer

As I said before, the word "phrase" misled me. In French, a "phrase" is a sentence, begining with a capital and ending with a "."(or?, or!)
Thanks for correcting me, Julie!

Miina · Answer

Thanks a lot,

so a phrase is a string of words without a verb. and what about participles, gerunds
and infinitives? They are not true verbs!

Is the string with these also a phrase?

Miina · Answer

Julie,
I went through the website you recommended, and they explain
the non-finite structures as phrases and not clauses.

But if I browse also other sites, I find about half of them in favour of phrases,
and half of them in favour of clauses.

E.g. Greenbaum and Quirk say the non-finite structures are clauses.

Ah, what to do....

Julielai · Answer

I'm no grammarian. Perhaps others would like to help you out on this.

I did find this, however.
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsANonfiniteClause.htm
Googled and found only two incidence of "non-finite phrases".

Paco2004 · Answer

Hello

'Non finite verbals' means 'the verbals are bearing no tense'

(EX-1) I am going to buy a newspaper.
Here we have three verbals: be(am), go(going), buy(to buy).
But the tense bearing verbial is only be.

Usually clauses defined as a part of a sentence containing a subject-verb structure

S+V].
Here S denotes a subject and V a (tensed) verbal

(EX-2) We respect Ms Tarte who I got acquainted with here.
Here we have two clauses
(1) We respect Ms Tarte.
(2) I got acquainted with (who) here.

But how about for me to speak French in the sentence below?
(EX-3) It is difficult for me to speak French
The phrase "for me to speak French" doesn't contain any finite verbal.
But semantically 'me' is the subject of 'speak'. So it contains a S+V structure, despite the V being non-finite .
Some grammarians call this to-infinitive structure as a "non-finite (small) clause".

(EX-4) I want to go to school.
This could be imaginarily rephrased as "I wanted (for me) to go to school".
So this to-infinitive phrase "to go to school" is also a non-finite clause.

(EX-5) I regret losing money.
You can understand easily who lost money; it's 'I'.
So the gerundive phrase '(my) losing money' may be regarded as a non-finite clause.

(EX-6) Staying in Australia, I learned English.
This present participle structure 'staying in Autralia' is also regarded as a non-finite clause.

paco

Anonymous · Answer

how many clauses are there?

CalifJim · Answer

<How may clauses are there?>

There are an infinite number of clauses -- but not all of them have been said yet.

You are probably asking how many kinds of clauses there are. In that case, there are a great many kinds, and it all depends how you classify them. In very general terms there are finite clauses and non-finite clauses. Then there are also declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory clauses. There are main clauses and subordinate clauses. There are relative clauses, noun clauses, adverbial clauses.

It's not important to know an exact count of the kinds of clauses.

CJ

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